With an aim to secure the digital environment, the Government is working on creating an overarching architectural framework and will soon come out with the National Cyber Security Policy, J Satyanarayana, Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India, said today.

Speaking in New Delhi at a workshop on ‘Role of Corporates in Securing the Digital Environment’, organised by FICCI in association with the Ministry of Communications & IT, Satyanarayana said in both the initiatives, the corporate sector would have a significant role to play through the PPP mode.

“There is always an element of vulnerability. The situation is dynamic and we are continuously assessing the threats,” he said.

Satyanarayana added that for digital certification, both security and trust were needed. “E-Praman, one of the initiatives of DeitY, will help establish the identity of the people, and help in building trust and securing the user’s identity in cyber space,” he noted.

T A Khan, Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), DeitY added, “When it comes to digital signature, we need to not only authenticate the identity of the user of the signature but also the transaction and must ensure the integrity of both.”

Some of the initiatives under taken by the Department for digital signature were online filing of income tax returns, e-procurement and e-tendering. DeitY has initiated Research and Development activities in the area of e-commerce on mobile platform.

Time stamping services and synchronisation will soon be activated which will help in protecting against threats which could result in an undetected change to the clock that takes it outside its calibration, Khan said.

Debjani Ghosh, Chairman, Information Technology Committee, FICCI, pointed out that by 2015, India needs to secure 40% internet penetration which means 500 million people must be connected to internet. “To achieve this target, we need to reach out to semi-urban and rural India, for them at present internet has no relevance. Soon mobile phone digital signature will be operational in India which will help in reaching out to this segment,” she added.

“The legalisation of digital signature would bring a new revolution and adoption of digital signature was still at a nascent stage in India. It will also have a significant impact on green policies as we are moving towards paperless documentation or e-documentation,” Ghosh said.

Sivarama Krishnan, Executive Director , PwC, said that digital signatures reduce nearly 50% of time spent by organisations in closing wet signature requirements. Business to Consumers (B2C) transactions are expected to witness a fillip in online transactions due to electronic signatures.

“The smartest organisations in the country are bringing together strategy, technology and market intelligence in a way that stacks them at the top of the information security league tables. The high stakes game of information security is witnessing unforeseen dynamics wherein both the game and the opponents are ever changing. To win, consummate strategists are focusing on advanced skills, processes and technology,” he added.